Episode 13 British Olympic Dreams

'Here comes Kelly Holmes. The crowd are on their feet.'

'What a start!'

'Denise Lewis, Olympic champion!'

'Rebecca Adlington is bringing it home for Britain.'

'Great Britain get the gold medal!'

'Yes. Yes, yes!'

'Kelly Holmes for Great Britain, what a performance.'

'You are absolutely brilliant!'

'Chris Hoy for Great Britain takes gold.'

'Gold medal number four, Chris Hoy!'

'This is the moment Paula Radcliffe has waited so long for.'

'Adlington's going to be the gold medallist!

'Great Britain have won a gold in the swimming pool.'

Hello and welcome to British Olympic Dreams.

In this episode, we revisit London's illustrious Olympic past

as well as bringing you the inside story of those athletes

attempting to make history when the Games return in July.

From here in White City in 1908 to Wembley stadium 40 years later,

teams gathered from a across the globe to fight for gold

and a place in sport's hall of fame.

This summer London will once again become a sporting battleground.

Gymnast Beth Tweddle is a three-time world champion

but an Olympic medal has so far eluded her.

Helen Skelton joined the 27-year-old for a grand day out.

With the Olympics fast approaching Britain's athletes

are training harder than ever

and one of them hoping to make it third time lucky is Beth Tweddle.

She's been given a rare day off to take on a special role

at one of the biggest parties in the north-west.

And I am tagging along.

'Fabulous performance from Beth Tweddle.'

'Beth Tweddle has shown us what she's really capable of.'

Hello, Beth!

You have got Union Jacks everywhere.

It kind of started off as a thing between me and my coach.

She gave me something GB as a good luck present

for one of my first internationals,

and I gave her a thank you thing and it is now a competition of,

what's the most original thing you can get?

It's the obvious question, you must be excited about this year.

Everywhere you turn at the minute. I can't even go shopping,

you can't turn the telly on without seeing

something to do with London 2012, so it is really exciting.

How long have you been on the senior circuit now? Ten years?

About ten years. 2001 I first made my senior debut at a world championships.

So, sometimes I feel old in the gym. My body can't quite do the numbers

that the youngsters are doing. But, with that comes experience.

So I've done a lot more major championships

and you can use that to your advantage.

To have a MBE at the age of 25 was a massive achievement.

World champion, Olympian, MBE.

What do your parents... Is that your mum and dad?

-My mum, dad and my brother.

-What do they make of it all?

They are so supportive,

they've been to every competition apart from about five or six throughout my career.

They're actually going to be there today watching me do the opening.

This is meant to be your day off but you're doing all of this,

you were training this morning.

Do you ever really get to switch off?

You do get some days but, to be honest, I get bored.

If I'm just sat at home doing nothing I'm a nightmare, I'm just bouncing off the walls

It's quite nice to come out, and they say a change is as good as a rest.

-I hope you have some winners.

-I know, and you.

-You've got those tips hiding.

-I'll text you!

-Cool.

-I won't tell you!

-Is there more pressure because it's in London?

-I think there is a lot more pressure.

A lot more people know about us,

they have done a lot more profiling on a lot of the Team GB athlete.

You've taken big titles before. Do you have to keep upping your game

and introducing new skills and changing your routine?

Yeah. The thing is with my routine, the judges get to know it,

they get to know what deductions to take,

so sometimes, as long as I go from A-B they kind of know

what score they're going to give me before I present

So each time I've sort of come back with another skill, come back with a new thing,

and this year I've added a new dismount in.

It's took me three or four years to get it into the routine

just because it is so hard at the end of such a long routine.

A very fine line between you walking away with the medal and not, isn't it?

It is. I mean in Beijing I was 0.025 away from a medal.

I took a step out of my dismount and that's 0.1, so it really did cost me a medal.

How do those kind of experiences affect you going into London?

Beijing I found really hard to get over.

That was one of the only other competitions that I've ever found hard.

Every other one I have put it to one side and said, I need to work harder in the gym.

But even now, Beijing, I haven't watched the routine all the way through.

What's like for you two, sitting in the crowd?

Do you get nervous, excited? How do you watch it as Beth's parents?

When we're sitting in the crowd, very often we don't sit together

-because it's quite difficult sitting next to this one.

-Try not to!

I can tell you, in a competition.

When I'm swinging round the bars with her.

We don't volunteer we're Beth's parents, but it becomes pretty obvious pretty soon.

She's just a normal girl, when it comes down to it.

It doesn't seem to affect her in any way whatsoever.

All she's concerned about is getting her training done

and doing the best she possibly can.

People talk a lot about her being a role model and we are pleased with that.

Because she puts a lot of time and effort back in with the kids.

You've been the centre of attention today, how was that? Opening Aintree?

Bizarre. They've asked me to come to the races for the past couple of years

but it has always clashed with competitions and me being out of the country,

so it's really nice to be able to come this year.

You won once, you've got a little bit of cash to go home with.

Yeah, not much but my boyfriend can take me out with his winnings.

All the very best for this year.

Fingers crossed you win big.

-Confident?

-We'll have to see what happens on the day.

1908 and the Olympics were hastily switched to London

following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius near the original Games' location in Rome.

and it was here at Windsor Castle where a young Royal audience

looked forward to a grandstand view of the start of the marathon

from the private east terrace.

GUN SHOT

The finish line eventually ended up here,

26 miles and 385 yards away from Windsor

in front of the Royal Box at the White City Stadium.

It went on to become the standard marathon distance.

One of Britain's best hopes for a distance running medal

in London this time around

is world and European 5,000 metre champion, Mo Farah.

'Mo Farah's been dominating the 10,000 and now the 5,000.

'A big win a superb performance.'

This is Herne Hill Velodrome, the last remaining finals venue

from the 1948 London Olympics that's still in use.

Built in 1891, it is one of the oldest cycling venues in the world.

Sadly there was no home gold medal success in 1948,

a statistic the modern-day British track cycling team is unlikely to repeat,

especially if the world championships in Australia are anything to go by.

# To dream the impossible dream

# To fight the unbeatable foe

# To bear with unbearable sorrow

# The unreachable

# Star. #

Here comes Great Britain,

Great Britain are the world champions!

So six golds, a host of world records

and a team full of confidence.

One of the stars of the show, Laura Trott,

came back from Melbourne with two world titles,

both in the Olympic events.

It's a feat the 19-year-old would love to pull off again

in the London velodrome later this year.

Here comes Trott, up to the line - look at that time!

Obviously, to come here and win the Omni is just massive,

I'm just over the moon.

Now Trott's got the extra power. Yes, she does it.

Coming down the outside again, it's going to be so close.

Laura Trott wins the elimination!

I'm setting myself up well for London.

How real does London feel, especially now you've finished

your last races before the London Olympics

and won gold medals in both?

I wouldn't say I've didn't believe that I wouldn't get to 2012,

but obviously to be 18 last year and win my first world title,

it was really then when I started to think,

"Oh, maybe 2012 isn't, like, totally out of the picture,"

so, yeah, it seems pretty real now and, obviously,

to finish in this competition winning both the Olympic events -

I don't think anyone could say

I'm completely out of the running for it.

Take me inside what it's like to be a part of that team.

When I first got on to the programme I was pretty nervous

cos I didn't know how people were going to react to me.

I mean, I was a little 18-year-old and they were all big names already,

so I was a bit like, "Oh," really nervous stepping into the track centre for the first time,

but they just took me under their wing.

They weren't like, "Oh, she's a nobody at the minute,"

like, "Leave her out." It wasn't like that at all -

it's just like one big family down there. Everybody talks to everybody.

I never thought I could sit there with Sir Chris Hoy

and have a conversation with him, whereas you can.

You realise that they are actually just normal people.

'The journey up into the GB senior team also led Laura to meet

'her boyfriend, another young British cyclist the same age as her

'and also on the verge of big things - Sam Harrison.'

Do you guys actually talk about track cycling much together

or is that like the one taboo subject away from the velodrome?

Oh, no, I do talk about it.

Obviously I don't sit there analysing it with him or whatever.

It's not like how you talk to your team-mates, I just tell him...

Obviously he asks how my day has been

and, I mean, cycling is my day, so I guess I have two tell him

some stuff to a certain extent, but, yeah, we try to steer away from it,

keep our relationship separate from cycling.

It's the first time I've been in Australia altogether.

It's not that often that you get to come to the other side of the world so, yeah, I do...

But obviously racing comes first for me.

Like, I want to win more than I want to see a country.

Laura's determination

and her ability to ride strategic races like nobody else

has brought her huge success, but it hasn't always been smooth riding.

In fact, things for Laura are routinely stomach churning -

she has a condition that makes her physically sick after racing.

I've got too much acid in my stomach and, obviously,

when I try hard I, like, tense my muscles

and it just pushes the acid up and then obviously it gets stuck,

and it's like it wants to come into my vocal chords and then I throw up.

I've been taking some tablets to try and calm it down,

but I'm sick a lot less now than what I used to be.

Is it more fun and more meaningful to go and win, say,

a world title or an Olympic gold in a team event like the team pursuit

-or on your own in the Omni?

-No, in a team pursuit.

I'd give anything for my team-mates

and I love the fact that you can go on the start line

with so much confidence in two other people.

We're like a little family, like, Danny and Joe are like two of my best mates,

so to go out there and win with them was just amazing.

The feeling you get as well, cos you're all so happy,

whereas my own I'm like, "Yay, I've won!"

It's like, only I'm getting that feeling.

I hope that we repeat what we did in 2008, to be honest.

If everyone could get a medal - well, everyone bar one

or whatever it was in 2008 - yeah, that would be awesome.

Henley-on-Thames, the quintessential home over rowing.

It's also twice provided a fitting home for an Olympic regatta.

In 1908, Great Britain swept the board,

winning all four events contested.

By the time of the post-war austerity games of 1948,

the world had caught up somewhat, halving the home team's total to two golds.

Britain also won a silver in the men's eight that year,

just as they did 60 years on at the Beijing Olympics.

Now, the tricky challenge for today's men's heavyweight rowing squad

is to upgrade that silver whilst protecting the precious gold they won in the men's four.

We went behind-the-scenes with the squad as they prepared to board the selection merry-go-round.

For a rower, winter is hard.

Long hours in the gym, your boat, the race, feels a long way off.

Battling against friends for seats the threat of injury,

constant pressure.

And the Olympic Games just getting closer and closer.

So we've arrived in the Sierra Nevada.

Just been for a little bit of a walk.

Had quite a long journey today,

So, you know, get the legs moving, recovery.

As you can see we're at 2,338m above sea level,

so that's going to give us a good base high up,

give us some good altitude training.

'This is where we do our toughest testing,

'the altitude making things even harder than normal.

'But there's always time for a break.'

Oh, you can see touches everywhere, silky skills.

Oh, and he hits the post.

Hi, I'm Mo Sbihi, five man of the eight.

Just currently up in Sierra Nevada, Spain -

it's an altitude training camp.

It's one of the hardest things that we could do.

The lack of oxygen makes breathing really hard

and makes getting your power output a lot harder than it is back down at sea level.

We come up here to get a natural benefit

and hopefully it'll make us stronger

and bring us that gold at London 2012.

It's been a long winter out of the boat

and as a newcomer to the squad, I'd found it difficult.

When we first started, the load was so much bigger than I was used to

and I remember there were a few days when we'd just do what would now be considered pretty standard days,

not big days, and I'd get home and I'd just sit on the sofa and just crash,

but, I don't know, I feel a bit more used to it now.

'This is the time of year when we work the hardest.

'All we see is the inside of the gym, lifting weights,

'getting out on the bikes.

'Just getting as fit as we can be.

'As you can imagine, our food bill is pretty large.'

Do we consume more food than your average?

What you've consumed are 5,000 eggs.

5,000 eggs?!

But still time for some light relief.

I found Stan and little mini Stan.

-All right then, come on.

-Go on. Look at that.

Ay!

Back in Europe, and at last we're out on the water.

Everyone split down into pairs and we start competing against each other.

We all want to be in the Olympic squad

and the best medal chance boat.

It's been a tough winter for everyone

and final selection decisions are about to be made.

I think now I've started thinking

that for the last three and a half years,

I've been thinking that the Olympics is miles away,

it's miles away and even in the winter

we still think it's ages away and now it's literally five months away

so I've actually started writing a CV

because I'm probably going to quit rowing after the Olympics

if I go there, so one of the guys in the eight's been helping me with that.

So we've managed to pad out the last ten years of my life

to make it sound like I've been up to something.

I think the Olympics... at the moment,

I'm just focusing on selection and getting an Olympic seat

and then I'll think about the Olympics.

We come to Eton, the venue for the Olympic Games and our final trials.

Over two days, everyone races everyone else. It's tough.

Yeah, this event is horrible.

It's definitely my worst event of the year.

I do not enjoy final trials,

purely because I'm racing against my friends,

the guys I spend all day, every day with,

and this year particularly we're racing against each other for an Olympic seat.

The pressure to get into the squad

and get a place in the Olympic team is huge. Performing well at trials is crucial.

The Olympic Games is down to a small, finite amount of time.

The final is on, whatever time it is, on a certain day,

and the person who crosses the line at the end of that 2,000m race,

in that amount of time, will be Olympic champion.

It doesn't matter how well you trained for four years beforehand,

it doesn't matter how many trails races you won,

how many half-hour ergos you did the best in the team.

If you cross the finish line first, you're Olympic champion.

Then, finally, the team's announced.

Pete Reed and Andy Hodge

move out their pair, back into the four, to defend the Olympic gold,

along with me, Alex Gregory, and Tom James.

In the eight, there's a new face.

Constantine Louloudis is just 20,

and he'll be in the stroke seat.

A few back, and twice his age, is Greg Searle,

20 years after his first Olympic gold.

The winter's over - now we're focused on the summer ahead.

Now onto one of the original sports at the first modern Olympic Games,

of 1896 - weightlifting.

It may have taken more than a century for the women's sport

to be invited to the Olympic party,

but 36-year-old Welsh lifter, Natasha Perdue,

is certainly trying to make up for lost time.

Her determination reach London 2012,

and follow in her late father's footsteps,

has seen her combined jobs as a council worker and refuse collector

with the utter dedication needed to win a place at the Games,

as Nick Hope discovers.

I get up at five.

I'm in work for six.

Good morning!

CHATTER

'I look after 700 staff for the PPE.

'Personal & Protective Equipment.'

In the mornings, sometimes you're extremely tired,

and you think, "What's it worth?"

When they come in, they don't care.

They just give me banters.

It sort of lifts you up, really.

You wouldn't realise she was my girlfriend(!)

Don't say things like that!

Don't put that on - I'll kill you!

I have to work full-time and train,

because I have bills to pay back home.

There we go, right?

Thanks.

With the London Olympics, we have support that we never had,

but it's not as good where I can actually give up work.

It's always close to my heart.

Every day of my life.

I wake up in the morning dreaming of the five rings.

OK, time to get my hands dirty.

You've got to push your body to the limit,

with the weightlifting,

where this machine does the work for you.

-Mind and put it on right!

-I bet I do!

I knew you wouldn't get it there.

I did it!

It's great. Sometimes there's days like today - absolutely beautiful.

You better get to Olympics, right.

You better go on that podium.

If you don't get on that podium, I will marry you.

I'm definitely going to get to the Olympics. Can't marry him!

I tell people weightlifting has changed me completely.

I don't know where this...

Something happens - it's like an animal comes out.

When you do it, I'll do things on the platform,

and then I'll sort of

go off, and as I'm walking off, I'm thinking,

"Did I just do that? Is it me?"

It's something inside that just goes crazy, I think.

My father was a weightlifter.

I'd never seen him, from, like, when I was born.

I used to go to the gym with my brother,

cos my brother was a weightlifter, but I was more into karate.

My dad passed away, and my brother

was like, sort of, "If you train, Tash,

"you can make the Commonwealth Games".

I was like, "Don't even like the sport - you have no chance!"

Former Welsh and British karate champion, only took up lifting

a couple of years ago.

It gave me butterflies on my inside.

And I was like,

"Yeah. Hang on, I can try and get the Olympics".

From that day on, I've been striving towards that.

My father came in the top ten twice in two Olympics,

so when I decided, "Yeah, I want to go for this",

I was like, "Let's try and get to where my father got".

Super-heavyweight means Terry Purdue,

where Great Britain are concerned.

So this was the Olympic Games? Wow!

He weighs over 23 stone, trying to lift 28½ now.

I wonder what he's thinking and feeling there now.

And with contempt, almost, Terry Purdue pushes

28½ stone above his head.

You can see he's just raw.

He's reminding me a bit of my brother, as well.

The British champion, the scrap metal dealer from Swansea,

is not at all happy with that, and neither is John Lee.

Lovely!

Now, I just sit in here, thinking...

..I want to go to the Olympic Games.

I've been saying the last couple of weeks,

the closer it's getting, the further away it seems.

But I've got to start thinking positive.

I can do the weight.

It's just getting the weights done

at the right time and the right place.

CHEERING

SHE SIGHS

That film shutter is meant to work.

At this stage,

We're pushing ourselves so hard,

it's sort of surviving, rather than enjoying.

But I think if I get on that platform,

that would be enjoying.

I'll have the biggest smile in the world.

Swimming in the 1948 Games was held in the Empire Pool,

which is now Wembley Arena.

This venue will host the badminton and rhythmic gymnastics,

this time around.

There's, of course, a new Olympic pool in London,

and Fran Halsall has already tasted success in it,

by qualifying for the summer Games in style.

She's bounced back after illness at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi,

and a serious ankle injury at the back end of 2010,

to find her best form at just the right time.

Fran, head down - is she going to get the touch?

It will be mighty close - Fran Halsall's got it!

New British record - 26.24. Gold to England in the 55 for women.

Amazing!

I was running. It happened at the end of 2009,

at the start of the 2010 season.

I went over on it,

and tore the ligament apart,

and carried on swimming all year,

but it didn't feel right,

and felt really awkward to swim and kick on it,

so I made the decision - after the Commonwealth Games -

"I need this sorted and get it right.

"I want to give myself the best opportunities

"and best chance possible at the Olympics",

so I said, "If I have to rule out 2011 completely, then I will do,

"just so I have everything right for 2012".

Now, I'm sitting here, and my times on my leg-kicking in the pool

is like ten seconds quicker than it was.

It's made a drastic improvement.

This is so nice, to be able to say

I've done this - swim in the Olympic pool,

in front of lots of British people.

When you walked out, and everything was shiny and new,

and these pretty little lights sparking on all the lanes,

and everybody was in the crowd.

I just smiled to myself.

It was like, "Wow, this is awesome!"

What a moment for her!

Good to see the Brits cheering here in Beijing.

One of the many things I've learned, performance-wise,

is that,

it was the fact that when you're sitting in the cool room

at the Olympic Games,

there's eight girls there.

This is their one shot to win an Olympic medal -

it's everybody's dream to do that.

You're kind of living the dream here and now - you have to perform.

You don't miss her on a dark night, do you?

Sometimes, my dad

used to look at the pool.

He's like, "Oh, Fran's in that lane, Fran's in that lane".

He's watching the races.

He's like to my mum, "Diane! Why's Fran looking awful?

"What's she doing? A stroke?

"Looks ridiculous! She's not swimming well at all!"

My mum's like, "Andrew - she's winning!"

He's looking at the wrong lane - it's not me at all.

So I thought, "If I'm in a bright pink suit,

"He can't really miss me!"

SHE LAUGHS

At the time of qualifying, I was just like...

SHE SIGHS

..but now, it's just, "I'm going to the Olympics".

Like everybody here - for a national camp, everyone's so excited.

Everyone's working hard, and tired all the time,

but still really chatty,

and everyone's really, like, electric.

When there's 70,000 people go like, "Yeah! Go Fran!"

It will be like "Yeah! Go Fran!"

More like that -

I can stand up now - "Yeah, this is my pool.

"If you want to come here and beat me,

"you'll have to swim fast - all these people want me to win".

Where better to end this history lesson than right here -

where London's Olympic story all began - way back in 1908?

Go to our website for more information,

and to keep up with everything happening

in the world of Olympic sports.

-Until next time, it's goodbye from us.

-Goodbye.

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